Interface

The V30 maintains LG’s stature as a company that loves to give you options, but knows how to keep them organized and accessible; without that piece, most people would rather not have the options at all. Customization doesn’t stop at just themes, but also includes OS tweaks which offer custom navigation buttons, unique locking/unlocking methods, and also a new feature called Floating Bar. This is the spiritual successor to the V20’s secondary display, and functions like other Android badges. A translucent half-circle sits on whichever edge you place it, and when tapped reveals a carousel of shortcuts for contacts, apps, music controls, screenshot/gif capture, screen markup functions, and more. This is a great replacement for the complimentary display, as the optional feature is easy to place and flick out of your way when necessary, but also simple and intuitive to use, as we find LG’s menu systems to typically be. Some may miss the dedicated screen for this function, but these days you need all the screen you can get, and it’s tough to waste face real estate on a static screen. We wouldn’t mind some gestures for the fingerprint sensor though. Since it’s already on the phone's back, a page scrolling gesture would be a nice option. But alas, not even the mighty Google Pixel could deliver fully on that, for some reason.

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Overall, we enjoy LG’s aesthetic and operating nuances, as it teaches manufacturers important lessons in the tasteful and functional melding of manufacturer UI’s and the Android OS.

Face and Voice Unlock

In addition to the snappy fingerprint sensor, LG’s giving you two more easy ways to get into your device: facial recognition and voice recognition. While both seem to promptly grant you admission when set up, training the voice recognition took a few tries. Facial recognition was set up in one go, but voice requires a very consistent 4 recordings; there’s little if any room for vocal variation on the same words. We’ll see how this technology progresses, but it’s obviously not recognizing words, but rather sound waves. When the function is setup though, it makes for a nice, easy way to wake up the screen without having to grab your phone. All of these work in tandem pretty nicely, actually. Say your hot phrase to wake up the phone and see if you have any notifications. If so pick up the phone, and less than a second after raising it, your face has been recognized and your phone unlocked. That’s just how convenient and capable we found these functions, almost every time we picked up (or didn’t pick up) the phone. Another great example of LG’s savviness in putting together functions without having them step on each other’s toes, or become redundant.

Processor and Memory

The V30 runs buttery smooth on a Snapdragon 835 paired with four gigabytes of RAM. Storage options are 64 GB and 128, with microSD card expansion up to two terabytes. Spec-wise LG’s hitting all the right notes here, and real-world performance doesn’t disappoint. From the second you lay a digit on the fingerprint sensor, you get an idea for how quickly this phone operates. At this point it’s a good time to remind our readers (and ourselves) that this is still a preliminary device. Nothing may change after this version, or something significant can. That said, it would be hard to fathom this device slowing down. Multitasking flows like water, and apps open in a flash. To touch back on interface for a brief moment, we like how well things flow on the V30. When manufacturers have top of the line specs, often they can slow the device down a bit or make navigation somewhat jarring, all by making animations too slow, or abrupt, respectively. For us, LG’s design language hits the so-called goldilocks zone with regards to UI motion and pleasing animations – something that even if done semi-unwittingly, is nonetheless appreciated.

Nice to finally see some competition. Nothing incredibly exciting but a nice phone with several things going for it. Not for me though. LG will have to put in at least three years of prominent sales and earnings for me to feel comfortable they will be around in 5 making mobile.

Are you kidding me? LG has been making cell phones since 90's. This isn't HTC who only makes phones. This is one of the largest companies in South Korea? Do you think they are somehow going to stop making phones and go out of business?

I do like the design. It does look a bit S8-ish but without the curve. The curve on the S8 does look pretty but makes screen replacement expensive and for most people it does nothing for usability. In fact its distracting and makes edge selection more difficult.

I've always liked the V-series from LG but they're not available in the UK

I really like the V30. It's probably LG's best phone since the G2. But I would have liked the G6 flatness because it's very easy to attach a full-screen glass screen protector. I mean, these phones are seriously expensive, they must be well-protected, and protecting a 2.5D screen is not very easy and also ruins the aestethics.

I think the battery life, despite having the same size with the G6, will surpass the G6 by quite a margin, because of the OLED display and Snapdragon 835 insead of the power-hungry 821.

As an owner of Lg V10 I have mixed feelings about V30. One of the main advantages of V10 in comparison to other (almost)flagships smartphones was that it had durable case and was relatively resistant to falls, while this seems to be like other hi-end smartphones, so one fall and you looses few hundrends of bucks :/

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